Cambridge professor Stephen Hawking joined internet investor and science philanthropist Yuri Milner to announce a new Breakthrough Initiative focusing on space exploration and the search for life in the universe.
Breakthrough Starshot, which was unveiled at One World Observatory in New York today, is a $100 million research and engineering program aimed at the next great leap - to the stars.
The project involves light-propelled nanocrafts which could fly at 20 percent of light speed and capture images of possible planets and other scientific data in our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, just over 20 years after their launch.
Prof Hawking, a renowned cosmologist, has joined the board with Mr Milner and Mark Zuckerberg in the program which is being led by Pete Worden, the former director of NASA AMES Research Centre and advised by a committee of world-class scientists and engineers.
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